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Category: Salvation (Page 10 of 32)

To Us a Son is Given

December 19, 2017 / / 0 Comments

If you’re a baseball fan, you must read this piece in the current Texas Monthly on Houston’s World Series Championship written from John Nova Lomax’s perspective as a long-suffering, life-long fan of the Astros. He discusses the dread, the curse, and the cosmic forces that conspired against the ‘Stros for 55-years but then aligned perfectly this season to deliver the long-awaited title. Lomax covers all the excruciating history from the Killer B’s, the Astrodome, and dramatic playoff failures to the sale of the team, the last place finishes, and the humiliating move to the junior circuit: “The indignity of indignities — being frog-marched, kicking and screaming, to the American League!” This is a great read. It’s tough if you’re a Rangers fan. But it provides some hope for us, too.

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“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
~Isaiah 9:2

The light comes from another place to heal us and save us. The great light from heaven allows us to see more clearly what God is doing in this world. The light gives us what we do not have: righteousness, holiness, and peace. The light does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. How can this light become ours? How do I get access to this salvation light?

“To us a child is born, to us a son is given.” ~Isaiah 9:6

It’s a gift. The righteousness, holiness, and peace is a gift. The forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life can only be yours as a gift. Isaiah talks about this in terms of a battle or a war. This is like a fight. The oppressor in verse four has to be defeated, the yoke must be broken, the bar has to be shattered. But…

“Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.” ~Isaiah 9:5

The great victory over evil does not require your strength. You don’t need to wear combat boots. You don’t need a spear or a sword. Melt them down! Burn them up! Someone else is winning the victory for you! To quote the apostle Paul: “Thanks be to God! He GIVES us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

This great salvation, this light from heaven that flashes with all its life and beauty and truth, comes to us as a gift. Again, Paul says “The GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!” The only way you can have it is to receive it as a free gift.

For a lot of people, that’s harder than it sounds. Receiving forgiveness and eternal salvation and everlasting life as a free gift — maybe that’s difficult. Some gifts are hard to receive. Some gifts require that you swallow your pride in order to receive them.

What if on Christmas morning you open up a present from your spouse and it’s a three volume set of books on dieting. Then you open up a gift from your daughter and it’s a three DVD set entitled “Overcoming Selfishness.” If you say, “Thank you so much for these gifts,” you’re admitting, “Yes, I’m fat and obnoxious.”

Some gifts are hard to receive because you have to admit you have flaws and weaknesses and you need help.

Maybe one time you were in a financial bind. You didn’t ask for any help, but a good friend of yours knew what was happening and gave you enough money to make a mortgage payment. He gave you enough to make a car payment or to buy Christmas presents for your kids. If that’s ever happened to you, you know that to receive a gift like that means you have to swallow your pride. You have to admit you need help.

The true heart of Christmas means that you are so lost, you are so broken, you are so unable to save yourself, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God can save you. That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a good enough life. You’re not capable. None of us is.

To accept the true gift of Christmas is to admit and even embrace that you are a sinner. You need to be saved. You need to give up control of your life and say “yes” to the Lordship of Jesus.

“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God!” ~Ephesians 2:8

Peace,

Allan

The Good News

December 14, 2017 / / 1 Comment

A Texas Longhorns football legend and the best two-way player Darrell Royal said he ever coached died yesterday. Tommy Nobis, a two-time All America and the only sophomore starter on the Longhorns’ 1963 National Championship team, passed away at 74. In my view, he is the greatest football player to ever wear the number 60, edging out contemporary linebacking cohort Chuck Bednarik. Nobis played both offensive guard and middle linebacker for the ‘Horns for three years, leading Texas to a 27-5 overall record and that national title. He was named All Southwest Conference twice, he was the team MVP twice, and in 1965 Nobis won the Maxwell Award as college football’s best all around player, the Outland Trophy as college football’s best lineman, and finished seventh in the Heisman vote. The expansion Atlanta Falcons made Nobis their overall number one pick in franchise history, outbidding the AFL’s Houston Oilers who also drafted him number one. And in that first NFL season, Nobis racked up an average of 21 tackles per game and won the league’s Rookie of the Year honors. He played in Atlanta for eleven years, leading the team in tackles for nine of those years, making the Pro Bowl in five of those seasons, and earning the nickname “Mr. Falcon.” From Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio to the College Football Hall of Fame and the cover of Life Magazine and the Falcons’ Ring of Honor, Tommy Nobis was the consistent picture of rich character, immense talent, and deep loyalty. God bless Tommy Nobis and his family.

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There’s a difference between advice and news. Advice is concerned about what you should do; news is a report about what’s already been done. Advice tells you to make something happen; news tells you something’s already happened and compels you to respond. Advice says it’s all up to you to act; news says someone else has already acted.

Let’s say there’s an invading army coming to town and they’re bent on killing all of you and destroying everything you have. What you need is advice. You need advisors. You need someone to explain, “OK, we need to dig the trenches down here and put the snipers up there. We need to move our troops in that direction and place the tanks over in this direction. We need to do these things to be saved.”

But what if a great and powerful king intercepts the invading army and destroys it? What does the town need then? You don’t need advisors, you need messengers. And the Greek word for messengers is angelos: angels. And these messengers don’t say, “Here’s what you need to do to be saved.” They say, “I bring you good news of great joy that’s for all the people! Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ, the Lord!”

In other words, “Stop running, stop hiding, stop building fortresses, stop stockpiling weapons. Stop trying to save yourself! The King has already done it! The King has come to save you!”

Something has happened, something has been done, and it totally changes everything.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all people!

Allan

The Heart of Christmas

December 12, 2017 / / 0 Comments

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” ~Isaiah 9:2

This is a very well-known Christmas text, a famous Christmas text that speaks to the coming of the Christ. And it describes the condition the Christ is coming into as darkness. People are walking in darkness. People are living in the land of darkness. We read this a lot at Christmas, but we don’t ever read the verses right before it. The end of the previous chapter actually tells us why the world is so plunged in darkness:

“When people tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?… If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn… They will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” ~Isaiah 8:19-22

People are looking toward the earth for help. Men and women are looking toward themselves for wisdom and salvation.

Yes, we’re living in darkness; yes, things are really messed up; but we can fix it ourselves! There’s poverty and hunger, greed and lust; but if we’ll just all look out for each other and learn how to give more, we can change it! There’s broken lives, broken hearts, and broken relationships; there’s twisted bodies and warped minds and institutional vileness and moral evil all around us; but if we just vote for the right people, if we just pass the right laws, if we just use the right technology, if we just invest in the right companies, we can overcome it!

Listen, the message from the Hallmark holiday movies and the holiday music and the Coke commercials and emails and billboards is that we have it within us. The love and goodwill that exists in each of us is enough to create a world of unity and peace. In other words, we have the light inside us. And if we just work together, we can eradicate the darkness of the world. If we’ll all come together, we can overcome poverty and injustice, violence and evil. With what’s inside us, we can build a world of love and joy and peace.

Really? Can we?

We can’t save ourselves. Have you noticed?

We’ve been trying for centuries. We are completely unable to save ourselves. In fact, believing that we can save ourselves — that education or politics or hard work or some system or ideology  can save us — has only led to more darkness!

See, the Christmas message gives us a very realistic way of looking at life. At it’s core, Christmas is very unsentimental. It’s not mushy or fantasy. Christmas is not, “Cheer up! If we all pull together, we can make the world a better place!” Christmas is not optimistic thinking like, “We can fix the whole world if we try really hard.” And Christmas is not pessimistic doom, either, like, “Things are awful and they’re getting worse and nothing’s ever going to change.”

The heart of Christmas is this: Things really are terrible and we cannot heal or save ourselves. Things really are this dark. Everywhere. But, there is great hope.

On those living in deep darkness, a light has dawned.

It’s not, “A great light has sprung up from the world” or “The light has come from the people.” It’s ON the people, a light has dawned. ON the world, a light has come. The light has come from outside us. The hope has come to us from outside the world. Christ Jesus is that salvation light. That light is the Holy Son of God.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not conquered it… The true light that gives life to all people was coming into the world.” ~John 1:4-9

The true light was coming. The eternal light that gives life to all people has come. The one light that shines in the darkness and overcomes the darkness — the light from above, the light from outside us has come!

And we celebrate that light at Christmas. But that’s not really the right word. We stare at it dumbstruck. We’re lost in wonder at it. We fall down on our knees in awe of it. God himself comes to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ to provide for us what we simply do not possess, to do for us what we could never do ourselves. He brings to us from outside of us holiness and righteousness and peace.

Peace,

Allan

Here’s Looking at You

November 27, 2017 / / 0 Comments

My kids tell me I’ve ripped this off from the movie “27 Dresses” which, as God is my witness, I’ve never seen. But when I’m at a wedding and the bride makes her appearance at the back of the church and begins to walk down that center aisle, I do turn my attention to the groom. I want to watch the groom as he sees his beautiful bride. Because the way that groom looks at the bride is the way our God looks at his Church.

Scripture tells us that God wants to be much more to us than just a mighty king with loyal subjects. He wants to be the groom to the bride. He wants a relationship of intimate love with us as profound and eternal as that between a husband and a wife. God calls himself the groom throughout the Old Testament.

“‘They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord.” ~Jeremiah 31:32

Jesus calls himself the groom in the Gospels and compares the Kingdom of God to a massive wedding feast.

“How can the guests of the groom fast while he is with them?” ~Mark 2:19

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son… All things are ready! Come to the wedding banquet!” ~Matthew 22:1-4

And at the end of time, when everything is finally made right and all of our Father’s plans have culminated in the new heavens and new earth and perfectly righteous relationships with him and one another, there’s going to be a wedding feast to end all wedding feasts!

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” ~Revelation 21:2

“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” ~Revelation 19:9

This coming feast celebrates finally the intimate and permanent union of God and his people. This is how history ends. This is what God is doing.

When God uses a metaphor to help us see him better, it also helps us better understand how he sees us. God calls us his Father, he calls us his children, and then Jesus says, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more…?”

If God is our groom, then he must really love us. He must truly delight in us.

What does the bride look like when she walks down that aisle? How does her groom see her? Have you ever watched the groom?

When the groom sees her, he’s absolutely delighted. You can see the love in his eyes. You can almost feel the commitment in his heart. You can sense the complete devotion to her in the deepest part of his soul. He’ll do anything for her for the rest of his life, he’ll stop at nothing to protect her and provide for her and please her, he’ll dedicate his whole existence to loving her forever — you can see it in the way he looks at her!

How dare our Lord use a metaphor like that! How dare the Scriptures tap into this really powerful image and its accompanying emotions!

Could it be that he really loves us like that? That he really loves you that much? That God is that committed to you?

How different would your life be if you lived every day — hour by hour, moment by moment — in the awareness of God’s great love for you? He’s looking at you right now. He thinks you’re beautiful. He’s proud of you. And he loves you more than our words can describe.

Peace,

Allan

The Closing Prayer

July 6, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Carter Karels was a cute little middle school kid in our youth group at Legacy when our family arrived in Northeast Tarrant County in 2007. He knew then he wanted to be a sportswriter. Now today, after a couple of key internships, a successful stint as the sports editor at Texas A&M’s Battalion, and a few medium-profile run-ins with SEC football coaches, Carter is a sports reporter for USA Today. His very first story, on the season-ending injury to the Dodgers’ top pitching prospect, can be found here. He’s also written a popular profile of Yankees star slugger Aaron Judge, which can be accessed here. Congratulations, Carter! I’m very proud of you, man. And I know your dad is probably impossible to live with now…

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“May God himself, the God of Peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

As a family formed by the future, it’s appropriate that Paul would end his letter to the Thessalonian church in Jason’s house by pointing them again to what is to come: the finished work of our God.

Sanctification, the continual process of being made holy, is both a gift from God and a goal. It is both experienced right now and still to be accomplished. Holiness is given to disciples of Jesus at the point of conversion, when we pass from death to life and become new creations in Christ. But it is also a goal that we strive to live out in our daily lives. This life of discipleship to our Lord is “between the times,” because he hasn’t finished yet what he began.

But he will.

During this short letter, Paul has talked a lot about himself and the church in Thessalonica. But his closing prayer reminds us that all of it is truly about our God. The last thing Paul wants on his hearers’ minds is our God, the One who has called us and saved us in Christ Jesus, the One who gives us his Spirit in power and holiness, and the One who will bring us into his Kingdom and glory when Jesus returns.

Paul wants to reassure us, he wants to remind us, that not only is God able to do all that he has promised, but because he is trustworthy and reliable, he will in fact do it. Our future rests entirely in the power and faithfulness of God. And that should inform and enable us to live lives of power and faithfulness ourselves as we wait for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Peace,

Allan

Moving Away From the Tomb

April 20, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I’m struck by the fact that nobody saw Jesus at the empty tomb. Clearly our risen Lord didn’t hang around the cemetery once the Spirit resurrected him back to life. It seems he got out of there as fast as he could. Yet, here are the women, looking for their living Lord among the graves. The angels ask, almost incredulously, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

Good question.

Sometimes good faithful Christians can be stuck. We’re dead. Or, at least, we act like we’re dead. Some of us have followed Jesus to Jerusalem. We’ve endured suffering and pain in his name. We’ve carried the cross. Most of us have died on the cross of Christ and, even though we’ve been baptized for the forgiveness of our sins and received the gift of God’s Spirit inside us, we’ve never really been resurrected. Some of us don’t live like we’ve been given the gift of eternal life by the almighty author of life. We live like we’re still dead. We’re still knocking around in the dirt and dark of the grave. And we’re surprised when we have a hard time seeing Jesus. We’re surprised when there’s no experience of Jesus.

The resurrection is not just about heaven someday — it’s about a full life today!

But some of us are still buried in a tomb. We don’t sing. We don’t work. We don’t explore or experiment. We don’t accept challenges or tackle new tasks. We don’t grow. We don’t laugh. Singing and working and exploring and growing and laughing are what you do when you’re alive! If you’re grumpy all the time, you’re not living the resurrection life. If you’re negative all the time, you’re dead.

What are you thinking? God’s going to fix my attitude when I get to heaven?

“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ!” ~Ephesians 2:4

“Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life!” ~Romans 6:4

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” ~Romans 8:11

The death and resurrection of Jesus is not just about my sin and Jesus taking my punishment and now everything’s great. We’ve been given eternal life. We share in Christ’s resurrection so we can be holy, royal image-bearers, so we can be ambassadors for Jesus and partners in his Gospel.

But I want to play it safe. Better safe than sorry. I don’t want to take any risks. I don’t want to go out on a limb. I don’t want to change or grow.

Man, you’re living in the dark and cold of the grave! And that’s not really living. Follow Jesus away from the grave and into the warmth and light of his resurrection life!

Once the disciples moved away from the grave, they most certainly did not play anything safe. There was no hiding or sleeping. No stagnation or status quo. They started preaching and teaching. They sold their possessions to give to the poor. They violated city ordinances to proclaim the good news. They took mission trips on broken down boats and prayers. They sang praises in prison chains. They turned the world upside down for the Kingdom of God! That’s resurrection living!

It’s like a wonderfully talented musician on the verge of his own worldwide concert tour. He plays beautifully. He’s awesome. He’ll inspire thousands. But he’s caught up in a terrible crime and is thrown in jail. But, then, by some miracle, the governor declares a general amnesty and the great musician is released! His response is not just, “Whew! Thank goodness I don’t have to go to jail!” It’s, “Now I can play like I was born to play! I can perform like I was created to perform!”

Christians sometimes are too preoccupied with not going to jail.

Listen. If you’re in Christ, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO JAIL! So now you can really live!

This is good news, not good advice. This is the Gospel.

Peace,

Allan

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